Davis The way it's supposed to work is you test all your extensions on your local (or beta server install) and get take the generated composer.lock file and upload that to the production server, then run composer install on the server.
Yeah, this is how I work with all other system installs (e.g., CMS), but Flarum is the first time I've had to use Composer, so I'm a little unsure still about how it's supposed to work.
take the generated composer.lock file and upload that to the production server, then run composer install on the server.
Okay, that's useful. Didn't realize that was the method. So both local and production need to have Composer installed, and then it's just a matter of dragging the Flarum file tree from local to production after syncing database, yes?
(because if someone makes a post while you are installing an extension, when you upload the changes, their post won't exist. This is a quite dangerous thing on a production server)
Well, I won't be installing extensions on production first.
Aside from that, the production site is in beta lockdown right now and will remain so until Flarum's first release is made. If I did happen to install an extension there first to fast track some of this early setup stuff, I doubt it would conflict with any post activity because there isn't any activity right now. ? But your point is well taken.
It's also my hope to have the boards pretty much finished -- including all needed extensions already installed -- by the time our boards are opened to new accounts. So hopefully no need to install extensions at that point, except maybe to update the ones already used (again, via local first).
It's our belief and protocol for all systems installed to use as few extensions as necessary. That way we reduce potential for unnecessary problems caused by third-party code and help keep things light. We're not plugin collectors. ?
You're best off spending the extra $1-5 a month to get a VPS so you can run composer commands on your server.
We use WebFaction, which I think is "managed" VPS, not sure. But in any case, we have a sponsorship with them for another several months (which is why they're listed in the partners area of our website), so we won't be changing hosts anytime soon.
In fact, we just got done changing hosts, which was a major pain in the ass considering resetting up all the databases, creating user accounts, redoing all our email, etc, etc, etc. We don't want to do that again soon. We have better things to worry about.
Already on our list of to-dos.
